


Seeking Shelter

by obsessivewriter



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Romance, Sleeping Together, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:33:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28200927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obsessivewriter/pseuds/obsessivewriter
Summary: It all started with one little lie so an elderly innkeeper would allow them to stay since she only rented her room to married couples. The thing about lies, though, is that the snowball.orMy take on the prompt: Gendry is trying to help Arya get home to her family. Along the way they find a small inn they can stay at, but the owners clearly frown upon renting a room to an unwed couple. So, they pretend to be married for the night, and try to put on a convincing display for the innkeepers.
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Comments: 37
Kudos: 178
Collections: Gendrya Gift Exchange 2020





	Seeking Shelter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sheriffandsteel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheriffandsteel/gifts).



> Dear sheriffandsteel: I hope you enjoy this fic!

[ ](https://imgur.com/pcjAYKy)

The elderly woman eyed Arya and Gendry warily as they greeted her and explained that they had been sent to her home, as the closest thing Hag's Mire had to an inn. Still, before they could finish explaining, the lady interrupted them, lifting her cane to make her point. 

"I only have one room for travelers in my home, and I do not allow unmarried couples to share a bed."

"That's not it," Gendry tried to explain. "You see we are-"

The woman limped towards him menacingly, faster than she had seemed able to do when she first came out of her home. Gendry was forced to take one step back when she pointed her cane right at his face.

"Do not tell _me_ that she's your sister, _boy_. I only need to take one look at the both of you to figure you are not related. Do not try to convince me otherwise. I was not born yesterday! This is a decent home, and I am a devout follower of the Seven! I do not know where you stole this girl from," she said, pointing at Arya with the cane, "but you will not besmirch my home!"

Any other time they would have just left and found a place to set camp in the forest, where they could be safely tucked away from danger.

This time it was different, though.

Their last encounter with the Lannister soldiers had been a close call, and so, Arya and Gendry were desperate to lay low. They still had a few coins from the last village where they had been able to stay, and they had made a bit of coin, Gendry shoeing horses and Arya selling the game she was able to hunt. After running for a week with little sleep and even less food, they were desperate to find a place where they could rest and eat enough to continue traveling north. 

"No, m'lady, it's not like that, you see-" Gendry tried once more to explain, but he was immediately interrupted.

"What? What don't I see? That you want to take me for a fool?!"

"We're married!" Arya blurted out, making Gendry turn towards her with wide eyes.

"Are you now?" the woman asked Arya, arching one eyebrow.

"We are. Married. It happened only a moon ago."

The old lady narrowed her eyes and walked towards Arya.

"Where did you marry?"

"In a small village where we stay, near Ramsford."

"Hmm. Is that so?" The woman asked, walking towards Arya, and narrowing her eyes, she asked, "who married you?"

Arya smiled, and she replied with the first thing that popped into her head, "There was a kind wandering septon who took pity of us and married us even if we didn't have much to pay him back."

"Is this true, _boy_?" The old woman turned to ask Gendry.

"It is. I swear," he blurted out.

The old lady narrowed her eyes once more and pursed her lips, and after eying them both for a while, she let them in and showed them to a small room on the loft of her cottage with sparse furniture and only a straw mattress, but far more than what they'd have in the past couple of moons. 

The moment the door closed, Arya let herself fall back on the bed and groaned when she finally allowed her body to let her know precisely how taxing their nights had been. Her eyelids had just started getting heavy when she felt the mattress dip.

"Why did you tell her we were married?" Gendry whispered close to her ear.

Arya opened only one eye to find Gendry's face too close to hers. 

"Why are you whispering?"

"You know why!" He spoke quietly, but his comic over gesticulating let Arya know that he meant to yell. 

"No, I do not know why!"

"She may hear us and figure out that we are not really married, and she will kick us out. And what then? I'll get killed on the spot, and you will be dragged to King's Landing!"

"Hence, why I told her that we are, and if we get kicked out, it will be because of you!"

Gendry grunted and let his head fall on the bed. He brought his hands to his face and rubbed his face hard. 

"It was silly to tell her we were married," he finally sighed.

"She was going to turn us away, and you know the gold cloaks were on our trail. How long do you think it would have been before they finally caught us? If we stay here for a fortnight, or even a bit longer than that, mayhaps they'll get tired and leave."

"How are we going to stay here for that long?" he asked, turning towards her. "We barely have enough coin for a couple of nights."

"You saw the lady. She's a widow who lives alone, and she needs a cane to walk. This place needs work. I bet that if we start helping out and offer to fix what needs mending, we could negotiate to stay a bit longer."

"She didn't seem to like us."

"She didn't like us when she thought we were just some couple looking for a place to fuck."

Gendry turned to look at her, and he grimaced, and for some reason, the way he seemed to react to the idea of bedding her stabbed Arya in the gut.

* * *

Ellyn was the name of the old lady that had welcomed them into her home. Arya had been quick to give hers as Alys, just in case the widow had heard about the lost daughter of Ned Stark. When Gendry had started to say his name, Arya interrupted him.

"Gen, his name is Gen."

It didn't matter, though, since Ellyn only referred to him as _'boy.'_

The first supper that they shared with the old widow had been tense. If it weren't for the hot bowl of chicken and vegetable soup that she had served them, Gendry didn't think he would have been able to put up with Ellyn's inquisitive eyes while she made them pray to the Seven before they could dig into their meal.

They were eating in silence, and Gendry was thankful that the steaming broth distracted him enough from the way Ellyn kept looking at the both of them. 

"How did you two meet?" Ellyn's voice finally broke their peaceful eating.

"What?" Gendry asked, looking up from his food at the same time as Arya. 

"You should say, _'I beg your pardon,'_ not _'what,' boy_ ," Elly admonished him. "I said, _how did the two of you meet?_ It's clear to me that you are not from the Riverlands. I can tell by your accents. You are from the Crownlands, are you not?"

Gendry nodded.

"And you?" She asked, looking at Arya. "I can't quite place it."

Arya set her spoon down, and she wiped her mouth with her sleeve to give herself time to weigh how truthful she should be. Considering everything, she replied, "I'm from the North."

"How did you ended up here and married to him?" she asked, pointing to Gendry with her wooden spoon.

"I came to King's Landing with the servants that the old Hand brought from the North. I was a kitchen maid."

"The traitor?" 

Arya squirmed inside but managed to keep her face from wincing.

"Yes, the _traitor_ ," the word tasted foul in her mouth. "After he was killed, they kicked me out of the keep, and I met Gendry on the kingsroad. I figured I should try to go back to the North, or somewhere close, at least."

Ellyn narrowed her eyes and nodded.

"And why were _you_ leaving King's Landing, _boy_?"

Gendry choked and coughed for a bit until he was able to answer.

"I was a blacksmith's apprentice, but there were dozens of them on the street of steel. I figured I could make a better living going somewhere else, mayhaps a small village where they didn't have one. And then I met her."

"Was it love at first sight?"

Gendry felt suddenly paralyzed by the question, but thankfully, Arya was better at answering questions.

"We were friends," she replied, with burning cheeks. "Gen was strong, and he was nice to me."

"Strong," she said with a smirk. "I can see that, and how about you?"

Gendry turned to look at Arya, and he was surprised to see her blushed cheeks. He stuttered for a bit and then replied, "It was the way Ar-, Alys cared for the little ones on the kingsroad. I liked that. And she's smart, thinks fast on her feet. And…"

"And?" Ellyn asked, leaning in.

Gendry cleared his throat, and looking down to his broth, he said, right before bringing a big spoonful into his mouth, "And she's pretty."

Arya turned around to face Gendry, surprised, but he kept his eyes fixed on his bowl.

"You never told me I was pretty before," she said quietly, making him look at her with wide eyes, and his cheeks started to tint, promptly matching hers.

"You didn't think he thought you pretty?" Ellyn said, breaking the tension in between them with her loud cackles. "Sweetheart, he married you!"

* * *

Arya and Gendry were no strangers to sleeping together. 

It had been years, after all, since Yoren took them from King's Landing along with the other recruits to the North, though they never made it there. After escaping from Harrenhal, along with Hot Pie, they had roamed the Riverlands, managing to escape gold cloaks and other outlaws. Hot Pie had left them a few moons before, deciding to stay at an inn where they needed a baker. Arya always slept in between Gendry and Hot Pie, both of them sensing she had to be protected because of her size and sex. Still, Arya was no longer the little girl she had been all those many years before, nor could she pass for a boy anymore since her first flowering. 

Still, they slept side by side, out in forests or inns whenever they managed to get enough coin. Every time, Gendry claimed Arya was his sister, much to her chagrin. But it had never been awkward, not even when Arya had started getting her moon blood. Yet, it had been only after Ellyn had asked them all those questions, and Gendry had admitted that he thought Arya was pretty that the delicate balance they had when sleeping together had broken. 

The straw mattress they had to share would have sufficed in the past, when Arya would fall asleep tucked against Gendry's chest, both of them with bent legs, Arya fitting perfectly within the curve of his body. Instead, that first night at Ellyn's, they had tried to fit on the bed without touching, facing away, with their backs close enough that they could feel each other's warmth, but careful to avoid direct contact. The bed was not wide enough, and the next morning Gendry had woken up with stiff muscles from the tension of not getting too close to Arya. 

It was no surprise he had been in a foul mood, but it wasn't as if Arya had been in better shape.

The roof of Ellyn's home was clearly in great need of repair, and when he offered to do the work, the old widow had narrowed her eyes for a moment before nodding. Despite the ache on his arms and legs, he had gone to work, relieved when the rote labor took him away from his thoughts. By high noon, Gendry took off his sweat-drenched shirt and continued laboring away.

Arya had gone to help Ellyn with the house chores since dawn, but it hadn't taken long between the two of them. After that, she had gone outside, happy to feel the sun on her skin, sitting down on the grass, with her back against a tree, watching Gendry hammering new shingles in the place where rotten ones had been. 

"Enjoying the view?"

Ellyn's voice had caught her off-guard, and when she turned to see the old widow smirking behind her, she had felt the heat on her cheeks, and she tried to convince herself it was because of the midday sun. 

"You have a lovely home," she said.

"I do. My late husband built it with his own bare hands. I, too, used to sit to enjoy the view," she said, and then she took a long breath, "though it wasn't the house back then, just as it isn't now."

After saying that, she looked towards the roof, pointing with her cane to where Gendry's muscular torso was on display.

"It's not that," Arya replied, shaking her head.

"Give it up, _dear_ ," Ellyn added. "There is nothing wrong with admiring your man. Not when he looks like that, and when your union has been blessed by the Seven."

Arya's stomach was in knots, but she started doubting it was only because of their deception.

* * *

On their second night at Ellyn's place, Arya was already in bed when Gendry came in. He washed as best as he could the sweat and grime from the work he had done on the roof, wetting rags in the water basin on the small table next to the bed. Arya tried to look away, but somehow her eyes kept being drawn to his muscular back and the way the water droplets slid along his spine all the way down until they disappeared at the point where they met the edge of his breeches. 

"The lady doesn't like me." 

Gendry's gruff voice made Arya realize she had been ogling him, but she was grateful that he was still facing away from her. 

"What makes you think of that?" she asked, forcing herself to focus on fluffing her pillow. 

"The way she looks at me."

"She looks at _you_ just the same way she looks at _me_ ," she said, seeing him coming to bed, keeping his breeches on. 

Arya was wearing the linen shift she wore under the simple brown wool dress she had started to wear since outgrowing the boy breeches she used to wear. When they slept rough, they kept on their clothes, but inside Ellyn's home, it was warm enough that they did not need to wear their outer garments. Gendry would typically go to sleep in his smallclothes whenever they shared a bed inside an inn. Still, something had seemed to change since they started the charade of being married, and since Ellyn's line of questioning had somehow altered something in the way Arya looked. She no longer seemed like a little girl that he had claimed to be his sister for so many years. It didn't help either that her shift's fabric was so thin that he could see the curves of her bosom and hips, and a darker shade over her teats and between her legs. He lifted the blankets on his side to lie down, pulling them over himself.

"Are you really going to go to sleep in your leather breeches? Won't you be uncomfortable?"

"It's fine."

"Is it? You were a bear this morning. One would think you'd finally have a good night's sleep after sleeping rough for so long now that we actually have a bed and a roof over our heads."

"The bed is narrow. And I'm fine in my breeches."

"Suit yourself."

They both lay down, facing away from each other, and Gendry squirmed, trying to find a comfortable position. After letting out a big huff, he resigned himself and untied the laces of his breeches, and took them off as best as he could, wriggling all the way.

Arya looked over her shoulder to see Gendry fighting to take his breeches off under the blankets and found her cheeks feeling suddenly warm when she realized what he was doing. She looked away, surprised by her reaction. After all, she had seen Gendry wearing far less, and it had never been an issue before. 

She cleared her throat and attempted to distract herself by talking.

"Why do you think Ellyn doesn't like you?"

"Well, you saw the way she talked to me when we arrived."

Arya sat up and turned towards him. 

"She didn't like thinking we weren't married. That's all."

Gendry turned on his side, facing away from Arya, and said, "She won't like it when she finds out we're not."

"Why would she find out? She won't unless you open your big mouth and tell her!"

"I'm not stupid!" He said, looking over his shoulder. 

"Well, you could have fooled me!" she yelled, pushing him with a foot on the small of his back. 

Gendry didn't have more bed to roll, and he lost his balance. He fell off the bed, knocking the small table that held the water basin, shattering on the floor.

* * *

After three days, Ellyn didn't soften in her treatment of Gendry, not even when he paid her for the two nights they'd spent at her home. If possible, she seemed even less welcoming of Gendry, and he wondered if the sound of the basin crashing the night before had anything to do with it.

Still, they went on with their plan, and Gendry started fixing the broken stone wall that surrounded Ellyn's property. It had been Arya's plan to start a new mending project every morning. One that would take more than a day, and make sure it would not be finished by sundown. The old widow would look at it and then announce they could stay one more night to complete the project. The next day, right after finishing what he had started, Gendry would begin anew with something else.

Meanwhile, Arya helped with chores and ran errands to the village. That is how she heard that the gold cloaks were still in the region, and they had set camps by all roads, checking each and every one of the travelers going north.

A whole fortnight had already gone by, and the three of them seemed to have fallen into a habit. When they sat at the table to eat supper, on their fifteenth day, Arya had been feeling out of sorts after spending the whole day washing clothes by a stream under an inclement sun. When Ellyn uncovered the pots, the smell of boiled root vegetables and mushy peas filled the room. While Arya had been ravenous, having eaten a piece of breath, washed down with unsweetened tea in the whole day, the smell of Ellyn's over-boiled and tasteless vegetables turned her stomach.

"Is everything alright, Alys? You look a little green."

Arya pursed her lips and said, "Just a bit under the weather. I'm afraid I've never been too fond of boiled parsnips."

The lady studied her for a bit, and Arya wondered if she thought she was faking it. Ellyn then looked at Gendry, who was frowning at Arya's state. 

"Oh," Ellyn exclaimed, letting herself lean back on her chair and letting out a chuckle. "I think it's more than that."

"What do you mean?" Gendry asked, confused. 

"I think it is pretty obvious, don't you think, _boy_?"

Gendry looked at Arya, and after knitting his eyebrows, he placed his palm on her forehead.

"You don't have a fever."

"I'm afraid that what ails your young wife is the effect of _another_ type of fever," Ellyn said with a smirk.

"What?" Both Arya and Gendry said in unison.

"Don't look at me like that. I've heard the ruckus coming from your room at night."

Gendry blushed furiously at the implication, and he took another spoonful of the foul-looking peas."

"Eat up, dear. You need it to nourish that babe in your belly!"

The peas that Gendry was eating went the wrong way, and he spluttered, coughing, and smashing his fist on his chest. 

"Babe?" he asked between coughs, looking at both women, while Arya seemed paralyzed. 

Ellyn continued chuckling, shaking her head as she mocked him, "Men can be so oblivious."

"I'm not-" Arya started to explain, but Ellyn interrupted her.

"I have to admit," she said, "that I was about to send you packing, but it wouldn't be a decent thing in the eyes of the Seven to abandon an expecting mother in her time of need."

Arya immediately closed her mouth and forced herself to eat a piece of bread to settle her stomach.

—-

The rest of the supper passed in awkward silence, but the moment their door closed, Gendry took Arya by the arm and brought her to sit on their bed and did the same hushed yelling they always fell into whenever they argued at Ellyn's.

"Why didn't you correct her?!"

"You heard her, she was going to kick us out, and when the Lannister soldiers are in the town of all times!"

Gendry let his forehead fall on his hand, and he groaned in frustration. A thought entered his head, and, raising his head, he asked her, "How are you feeling?"

"Still a bit queasy, and Ellyn's cooking didn't help at all. I have to convince her to let me make supper from now on."

Gendry observed her for a few moments, and his silence made her uncomfortable.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Are you sure you're not…"

Arya felt her blood boil.

"Are you seriously asking me that?! I think if someone knew the impossibility of that, it would be you! When was that even supposed to happen?"

"Well, you go to the village on your own!"

"And what? I bed men in between running errands?!" she yelled, swatting at his shoulder.

"No! I don't know… Someone could have taken advantage…"

"No one did! And I am not with child! I was just stupid enough to eat almost nothing and do the laundry under the sun for too long!" 

"Fuck!" Gendry exclaimed, standing up and throwing his arms in the air. "How many lies are we going to keep up with now? If she finds out that we lied, she'll be the first to sell us to the gold cloaks!"

"Relax!" Arya said, frowning at his reaction. "We'll make it work."

"Really?" he said, turning towards her. "And what if the gold cloaks don't leave? For how long are you going to keep this farce going? Are you going to start strapping a pillow under your dress? And what when you need to give birth? Am I to steal us a newborn babe?"

Arya was just as worried as he was, but the way he was bringing it up like she didn't think about these things, and she was just the impulsive one who never thought of the consequences of her actions irritated her to no end. 

"Fuck if I know! You may very well have to get me with child," Arya said sarcastically. Still, the way Gendry's eyes had fixed on her as if looking for something unnerved her. They darkened, looking her up and down, making Arya get an odd feeling in her stomach, one that she had started to feel more and more when she was alone with Gendry since they had been staying with Ellyn. 

Gendry walked towards her then, his darkened eyes never leaving hers, until he was so close she could feel the warmth coming from him. His eyes lowered to her lips, and his breath was close enough to caress them with his words.

"Don't joke about it."

Arya huffed and added, "because the idea repulses you?"

"No," he said, leaning in so he could whisper in her ear. "Because one day, I may take you up on your offer."

Her breath caught in her throat, and for a moment, Arya felt herself like a fish pulled out of the water.

Gendry didn't stay to see her reaction, though. He left without saying a word, and Arya fell asleep alone in the bed. The next day, he spent it outside, chopping wood without looking once towards the house from where Arya stared at him from the window.

* * *

"Is he good to you?" Ellyn asked, from behind her, making Arya turn around to face her.

"Yes, why?"

Ellyn looked out of the window to see Gendry bring the ax down with fury.

"He didn't seem too pleased, learning about the babe."

"He was just surprised," Arya explained. "He wasn't expecting it."

The old widow huffed and shook her head.

"He has been bedding his wife for several moons, and he didn't expect to get her with child? For the Seven! Why are the big strong ones the dumbest?"

"He's not dumb!" Arya retorted.

"He slept outside last night, did he not?"

Arya looked down for a moment, and the dull ache she felt when she woke up alone in their bed came back.

"He's just worried about me, the roads are not safe, and winter is-"Arya caught herself before finishing the sentence, "is almost here," Ellyn said. "It's not the best time."

"It never is," Ellyn replied, and handing her some sweetened tea, she added, "you let me know if he is not nice to you."

* * *

Arya and Gendry didn't talk about their conversation, but there was something in between them that made everything tense. More than once, they would wake up with their legs intertwined, with Gendry's hand on her abdomen and Arya's on top of his. When they awoke, it was always awkward when they disentangled themselves, making sure not to look at each other directly, to hide the blush on their faces. More and more, as Arya woke up in his arms, she willed herself to go back to sleep, or at least, to pretend like she was still sleeping, keeping her eyes tightly closed and trying to keep her breathing even. She felt guilty afterward and confused about the feelings that made her greedy for those few moments that she could pretend that they were really married, and his babe grew in her belly. But then, when those moments started stretching into longer and longer ones, she started noticing the erratic changes in his breathing, in the way his breath caressed her neck, and his fingers would start tracing patterns on her skin. 

During the day, Ellyn would give Gendry a hard time whenever she saw Arya lift something heavy, reminding him that he had to care for his wife and unborn child. Gendry would not say anything and take the buckets of water from Arya, and even carry her down the stairs whenever Ellyn was looking. 

The worry of how long they could continue with the farce hung upon their heads until one day it resolved when Arya came from the village to inform him that finally, the gold cloaks had retreated. The talk in town was that all the Lannister soldiers had been ordered to go back to King's Landing, as something seemed to have happened there, that required all their troops present.

Despite all the contempt Ellyn had seemed to have for Gendry, she had even hugged him when they both informed her that they were to leave the next day. On their last night, she agreed to let Arya cook for them as a thank you for letting them stay in her home. Arya felt guilty for having deceived her for so long, but telling her the truth would only make everything worse. 

"Are you sure you need to leave and head north?" Ellyn asked them when the meal was over. "You'd probably be better settling down and having your family here."

Both Arya and Gendry pursed their lips. 

"We are in your debt, Ellyn. You welcomed us in your home and let us stay here for far longer than what we could afford," Arya said.

"Nonsense!" Ellyn said. "You both fixed up my home. I'm an old widow, and my children married and moved away. If it weren't for both of you, I was sure to catch my death when the rains started with the state of my roof."

"It was nothing, just the decent thing to do," Gendry said.

"Oh, it was far more than that, Gen," Ellyn said, brushing a tear away and stunning Gendry by using his name for the very first time. 

Gendry turned to look at Arya, and they both looked into each other's eyes and smiled.

"Oh, to be young and in love," Ellyn added, making them both blush.

"Oh, don't look like that. It's sweet the way you look at each other, even more so, when you think the other one is not looking."

* * *

They went to sleep without saying a word to each other, though when they lay down, they didn't pretend to stay on their own side of the bed, and instead, Gendry pulled her to his chest in the way they had been waking up each morning. 

The next morning they left at dawn after Ellyn handed them a small bag with cheese, bread, and a few apples from her own trees. She hugged them both for a long moment, while big fat tears fell from her eyes. Though Gendry felt awkward, he made his best effort to hug her back.

They didn't talk about their time at Ellyn's for a whole sennight, but they still went to sleep as they did on their last night at her home. When they woke up at dawn, spooning together with their legs and hands intertwined, they stayed like that for as long as they could stretch the moment, their breathing giving them away and leaving little doubt that they were no longer sleeping. 

The knot in Arya's stomach didn't go away, though, as she had expected to happen once Ellyn's place was behind them. Instead, it coiled tighter and tighter each night, and it made her wake every day to a hollowness in her chest. It wasn't any better for Gendry, who found himself feeling surlier, as Arya's easy smile was all but gone. Every night, he set his head over his pack and opened his arms for Arya to find her place against his chest. They had been resigned that it was the only way in which they could both fit in the thin straw mattress they shared at the old widow's home, and while right then, sleeping out in the forest, there was no real reason for it, he had been too weak to pretend he didn't need to feel her close to fall asleep. 

But his sleep was far from peaceful. In the morning, when they could not pretend anymore to be asleep, and one started to rouse, his belly ached in a way he imagined would only happen if he swallowed a lump of burning coal. Their problems did not end there. In the days since they had bid Ellyn goodbye, they seldom spoke to each other. They walked, hunted, and ate together, still with the same synched movements they developed in the years since they were on the run on their own. But by the end of the day, something was missing, a wound in the chest that demanded to be filled. 

It all came to a head when they were getting closer to the Neck, and the ground became muddy and slippery. They kept on walking among marshes and bogs, with their boots getting caked in the dark mud. Gendry's breeches and Arya's dress started getting heavy and making their steps slower. When they were crossing through a rather tough stretch, Arya took a step, and her boot slid, making her lose her balance. She would have fallen and risked hitting her head hard if it hadn't been for Gendry holding on to her. 

"Careful!" He growled, and with a huff, he bent over and hooking a hand under her knees, and the other one on her back, he picked her up like she weighed nothing. 

"You have to be more careful," he reiterated. "You can't risk hurting yourself or the ba-"

"The what?" Arya asked at the same time that Gendry caught himself back in the middle of their mummers' farce. 

Gendry scrunched up his eyes and pursed his lips, cursing at himself internally.

"The _babe_?" Arya asked, pushing on his chest, making him put her down on the ground. "Are you serious? Ellyn is not here, there is no babe, and I am not _your_ wife!"

Arya had meant for her words to come out in jest, but as they bloomed from her lips, the bite from all the bitter morsels she had already swallowed since they came to stay with Ellyn turned them. 

Gendry dropped his pack to the mud and groaned loudly, stomping around. 

After pacing for a while, he turned back towards her and yelled, "Well, excuse me, _m'lady._ It's hard for someone so lowborn and stupid as me to keep track after pretending for so long!"

"Don't say that!"

"What? _M'lady_ or that I am but a stupid bastard?!"

"Both!" She yelled, stomping towards him and pushing him on the chest with both hands, only managing to make him stumble backward because of the slippery ground.

"Well, I will not make the same mistake and forget you are not _my wife_ , and you will _never_ carry my babes since I'm too bloody lowborn to be kin to m'lady high!"

"That's not it!"

"Is it not?! Then what is it?"

"You're just too stupid to see! But it doesn't matter anymore, since the whole thing was just putting on a show for Ellyn anyway!"

"You are right. I am so bloody stupid that I couldn't even do that. You want to know the truth? At some point, I wasn't pretending anymore! Not about the things I feel for you!"

Arya let out a big gasp, and Gendry immediately blamed himself for yelling. 

She lifted her chin up, despite the tears in her eyes, and said, "You really are stupid."

Gendry let his head hang low, feeling defeated, but then Arya continued, "But the only thing you are stupid about is not seeing that I wasn't pretending either, not about the way I love you, and how I feel when I wake up in your arms."

Gendry's eyes went wide, and after her words truly sank in, he bent down, and with a hand on her nape, he guided her to his lips. They kissed for a while until they parted, but they stayed with eyes closed, forehead to forehead. 

"I liked it too much," he whispered. "Going to sleep with you against me, imagining a life where we were not running away, and we settled down with a family of our own."

"We could still do that," she whispered back, but Gendry pulled away, making her open her eyes. 

He brushed her lips with his thumb and sighed. 

"You know we can't. You're a highborn lady, and I'm a lowborn bastard."

"I _was_ a highborn lady. I'm only the disgraced daughter of a man who was killed, accused of being a traitor. But even so, I get a say about what I want of the life I have left."

"And what do you want then, _m'lady_?"

Arya's hand came to his jaw, and she brushed the mud-stained stubble there.

"You."

He kissed her again, but this time, lifting her up, so he could kiss her better. When they finally parted, they looked at each other, recognizing themselves like it was the very first time. 

"And how do you think we could make that work?" he asked, but instead of the defeated tone he had before, he said it, with a smile on his lips that made Arya's heart soar.

"We keep going north until we find a wandering septon or a godswood where we can marry."

"And you'll be happy then? Married to bastard armorer's apprentice?"

"I'll be happy as long as I am married to you," she replied with glee.

"Good," he said then, before placing a quick peck to her lips. "We wouldn't want to break Ellyn's heart."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all who took the time to read this fic!


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